1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to scheduling for links having changing parameters, such as for example those found in wireless communication systems including adaptive wireless communication.
2. Related Art
Wireless communication between a sender and a receiver includes sending information using a wireless communication link, in which the sender modulates information onto a wireless communication channel (such as a frequency band reserved for wireless communication between the sender and the receiver), and the receiver demodulates that information from the wireless communication channel, so as to recover the original information. The wireless communication link includes multiple (physical and other) characteristics, including characteristics of the sender's equipment and the receiver's equipment, characteristics of objects on or near communication pathways between the sender and the receiver, and characteristics of other communications overlapping communication between the sender and the receiver.
One problem with known systems is that, due to changes in the characteristics of the communication link between the sender and receiver, the communication capacity of the communication link can vary substantially over time. In attempting to allocate traffic between (and among) senders and receivers, known methods of scheduling presume that communication capacity of the communication link is relatively fixed. Accordingly, known methods of scheduling can result in relatively ineffective or inefficient communication between the sender and the receiver.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a technique for scheduling for links having changing parameters that is not subject to drawbacks of the known art.